Publisher's Synopsis
Egypt has a serious security threat emanating from the Sinai Peninsula. Over the past several years, but especially since the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammad Morsi in early-July 2013, the level of terrorist activity and violence against Egyp-tian security forces has escalated to high-levels. The violence threatens Egypt's stability and its ability to get its troubled economy to rebound, particularly over such important economic engines as tourism and for-eign investment. Newly elected Egyptian President (and former Field Marshal) Abdel Fatah al-Sissi stated in his inaugural speech that, as president, stamp-ing out terrorism is his first priority.1 For the United States, the security problem in the Sinai has important ramifications as well. It threatens the stability of the most populous country in the Middle East region-a linchpin state in the area; it threatens the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel; it has the potential of a spill-over effect to threaten the vital Suez Canal waterway, upon which U.S. military ships (as well as merchant ships) pass from the Mediterranean to eastern Africa, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf.2
